By now, there’s no debate: The greatest American football player of all time is Tom Brady.
He’s the California kid that no one wanted: Not strong enough, not good enough, and not talented enough. Yet he overcame every obstacle and doubter, won seven championships, and etched his name in sports history.
So if there’s anyone who knows a thing or two about success and what it takes to get there—when all the odds are against you—it’s Tom Brady.
Recently, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Magazine, he was asked for his one rule for greatness and his answer didn’t disappoint:
I would say two things: Discipline and determination. When you have really big dreams and you have really big goals, your priorities and your actions better be reflective of those goals. There’s no shortcuts, and you better be willing to pay the price in advance because success doesn’t come before you put the work in.
If You Don’t Put In The Work, You Won’t Succeed
Discipline is about doing the work that will move you toward your dreams. Whether you want to be a great writer, engineer, painter, or dancer, the path to greatness is to dedicate tremendous time and effort to grow your abilities. As Tom Brady said, there are no shortcuts. You cannot skip this step.
Success in any field or endeavor is always the product of hard work, not the other way around. In fact, you’ll find this truth resounding across all elite athletes in any sport. In an interview with Carey Price, an NHL player, he explained his advice for any kid who wants to be a great goalie in hockey:
You gotta be willing to do things that other people don’t want to do. And there’s a lot of things that aren’t fun. When it comes to being good at goaltending, you gotta be willing to get hit in the finger, you gotta be willing to get hit in the collarbone, you gotta be willing to be exhausted every day—there’s a lot of things that go into it. It’s not just showing up to the rink and putting on pads and just doing it. There’s a lot of work that goes into it.
For example, to become a great writer (which is something many people on Medium want to become), I promise you will not want to write every day. You will not feel motivated every day. You will not feel energized or enthusiastic about your work every day.
Yet if you’re serious about your goals, you have no other choice. You must put in the work before you succeed and your actions need to match what you say you want. If they don’t, you will live incongruently and gradually erode your own self-confidence.
But here’s the good news: If you train yourself to stick to your commitments no matter what, it will become the norm in your life. As David Goggins would say, you stop “negotiating with yourself.” And best of all, living congruently with what you say you want creates alignment in your life and builds self-trust and self-confidence.
I will, however, say one thing about self-discipline: Often, we struggle to do the work not because we lack discipline, but because there’s resistance. For example, as a kid, I had to practice playing the violin, but I never did. My parents told me that I “lacked discipline,” but the truth is I simply didn’t like playing the violin. If I wanted to be a great violinist, sure, I would need to practice no matter how much it sucked; but that was never my goal so I saw no purpose to it.
If there’s a goal you struggle to make time for, check to make sure it’s a goal you actually care about. Make sure it’s something special to you, not the product of any outside pressure or influence. Your perceived “laziness” could actually reveal internal conflict or barriers that should be addressed.
How Bad Do You Want Your Goals?
Determination is about how driven you are to achieve your goals. When you’re dealing with countless obstacles and difficulties, how willing are you to persist and persevere to get what you want?
How much are you willing to endure? When everyone around you says you can’t do it, laughs at you, or criticizes you, are you able to ignore them and keep moving toward your dreams?
Tom Brady was counted out numerous times. When applying for colleges, many schools didn’t want him to play football. In college, he lost his starting quarterback job. After college, he barely made the NFL, getting selected as the 199th overall pick in 2000. In the NFL, he only became a starter because the quarterback ahead of him was injured.
But Tom never lost faith in himself. He was always determined to do whatever it took to get to his goal. He knew he would get his opportunity at some point and, when he did, he wanted to take advantage and use it to the fullest.
There’s something about Tom Brady’s story that always appealed to me. Obviously, I’m not a world-class athlete, but I know what it’s like to be doubted my entire life. I wasn’t lucky enough to have parents who were encouraging of what I wanted to do. (Quite the opposite, really.) And growing up as the smallest kid, I was frequently teased and made to feel inferior just because of my genetics.
But I always believed in myself. I was always determined to do the things that I wanted to do, not out of spite, but because they were things that mattered to me. They were things I dreamt about. They were things I wanted more than anything else.
So I looked up to Tom Brady as inspiration to stay determined and resolute, and I believe that allowed me to endure what I endured and eventually achieve what I achieved.
Keep Going
I have one simple message to add: When times are tough, keep going. Keep putting one foot in front of the other and, eventually, you’ll reach the finish line. That, ultimately, is the difference between those who achieve what they want and those who don’t.
I—just like anyone else—regularly need this reminder. As Ayodeji Awosika wrote, “The world will never quit poking you.” You can’t wait for problems to end; instead, you have to learn to become bigger than those problems and rise above adversity.
Yes, there’s luck involved in success. Yes, there’s no guarantee that, if you follow Tom Brady’s rules for greatness, you too will become great.
But it’s damn near impossible to reach greatness without discipline and determination. Because while not everyone who is disciplined and determined is highly successful, practically everyone who is highly successful is disciplined and determined.
If you master Tom Brady’s two rules, you’ll stack the odds in your favor.
And when your opportunity finally arrives, you’ll be ready.
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